Hours after L K Advani emphasised that the Bharatiya Janata Party would need to join hands with other political outfits to defeat the Congress, the Janata Dal - United on Saturday attempted to reach out to senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, saying she should have been considered first for the prime minister's post as she is a lady and the leader of her party in the Lok Sabha.
The National Democratic Alliance convener and defence minister said Advani's name does not figure in the NDA agenda.
Addressing a public rally in Sabroom in poll-bound Tripura, Shah said that the Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist had put the Ram Mandir issue in the jurisdiction of the court for long, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for it after the Supreme Court's order.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday said it will support the government in passing the anti-rape Bill by voting in its favour.
Bihar is no stranger to being at the centre of a tectonic shift in national politics fuelled by turbulent regional forces.
The Indian National Lok Dal on Sunday rejoined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and announced that it will contest the coming Lok Sabha elections in Haryana in alliance with the BJP.
Today is also PM Lal Bahadur Shastri's birth anniversary.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Shahnawaz Hussain, member of Lok Sabha from Bhagalpur, claimed on Sunday that the issue of the next President of India was still open. National Democratic Alliance leaders who met on Sunday deferred the matter for a few days and asked non-UPA chief ministers their point of view.
It is time the political leaderships in this country arrived at a common ground over issues of foreign and security policy concerns. There has to be a greater communication between the government and the Opposition leaderships for the nation to present a unified face against the rest of the world, advises N Sathiya Moorthy.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha has said there are many "capable" prime ministerial candidates in the party, including himself, but a decision on whether or not to project anybody for the coveted post would be taken before the Lok Sabha elections. Sinha also sought to downplay reports of differences between BJP leader L K Advani and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
The deputy prime minister's comments come after the prime minister's remarks that he was 'fit and ready' for elections.
Reacting to newspapers reports Leader of the Opposition Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj denied that Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani's Yatra against corruption had taken the party's second rung leadership by surprise.
Parliamentarians led by Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Saturday paid homage to martyrs on the 13th anniversary of the attack on Parliament.
Modi asked MPs to inform the masses about various pro-people features of the budget.
A large number of political leaders, diplomats and other bigwigs attended the wedding reception hosted by Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor and his new wife Sunanda Pushkar in New Delhi.
The live telecast of Parliament proceedings will make parliamentarians more responsible and debates more purposeful, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said.
With the National Democratic Alliance being reduced to a three-party alliance after Janata Dal-United's exit, Shiv Sena on Monday asked the BJP to explain its plans to bring in new allies, saying, "Friends don't grow like trees."
Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat on Sunday said there was possibility of an alliance minus the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The message for 2024 is that the man on the street is not going to be euphoric if the G-20 crowns Modi as king-emperor for 2023, or if India sends its first man to space just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Even a 'temple consecration' in Ayodhya, or a Uniform Civil Code, or both of them together, may not have enough electoral purchase if fuel and commodity prices are not rolled back, and money-in-the-pocket does not fatten, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The government on Tuesday conceded the opposition demand for having 30 members in the Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the 2G spectrum issue, giving up its earlier plan for a 21-member panel to accommodate smaller parties like All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, sources said.
The Opposition sought the prime minister's apology for it.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday visited Tihar jail to meet two former party members of Parliament and L K Advani's ex-aide Sudheendra Kulkarni, currently under judicial custody in the cash-for-votes case, to express solidarity with them.
Accompanying Bharatiya Janata Party veteran L K Advani on his Jan Chetna Yatra, Swaraj was travelling to the Gandhi maidan in Patna from Hajipur when her health dipped.
If there is unity in the Opposition, it is only about regional parties other than the DMK not wanting Rahul Gandhi or any other Congress leader for prime minister, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha, who is in charge of party affairs in Karnataka, briefed the top party leadership about the crisis in the state following the suspension of talks between the BJP and JD (S) abt the impending power transfer
Congress president Sonia Gandhi greeted Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on his 71st birthday inside the Lok Sabha on Monday, minutes before it resumed session.
'It is for the first time that Modi has chosen someone as CM who happens to be a mass leader, a polarising figure, a vote catcher, a powerful orator and a Hindu mascot all at once -- qualities usually associated with Modi,' points out Rajeev Sharma.
Amit Shah's fall has dented his boss Narendra Modi's eligibility to some day lead non-Congress centrist parties at the Centre. Here lies the real win for the Congress, as this will play as an advantage for its future leadership, says Sheela Bhatt.
Modi believes that the Congress leadership does not have the political sagacity to undertake a course correction because of its preoccupation about not losing its current gains in the voter base, observes Shekhar Iyer.
A move is afoot to extend the session of Parliament by three days from December 27 to 29 after a five day break from December 22, when it was scheduled to conclude, to facilitate adequate time for consideration of the Lokpal Bill. The Lokpal Bill is expected to be brought in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has sounded Bharatiya Janata Party Parliamentary Party leader L K Advani on the move and has promised to get back.
'We want the prime minister to express public regrets over his attitude,' BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said.
Manoj Tiwari and RK Singh found fault with the party's strategy and supported the demand of veterans like L K Advani that accountability be fixed.
Sonia, Sumitra Mahajan share a laugh at the event
This was decided at a meeting of the party's senior leaders presided over by BJP President L K Advani.
Addressing the party national conference in Indore, Singh said: "If I made some mistakes or poor decisions, forgive me. Please forgive me but do not in any way lose faith in the president's post," Singh said.
Five years ago, Bharatiya Janata Party veteran L K Advani spoke to Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com on the Emergency. On the 40th anniversary of Indian democracy's darkest hour, we reproduce the interview.
Exuding confidence that United Progressive Alliance would retain power at the Centre, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad claimed on Friday the alliance would benefit hugely from the National Democratic Alliance's old allies like All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Telugu Desam Party snapping ties with it.